Readership up among Asia's business elite

Hong Kong - The decline of print readership has been widely circulated, but the reading habits of Asia's business elite remains strong.

The 2008 BE:Asia (formerly ABRS) readership survey from Ipsos Media shows readership among Asia's senior business executives across print and online continues to grow.

More than 70% of this lucrative audience reads more than one of the region's international publications, up from 66% in 2004 and 68% in 2006.

According to BE:Asia, The Wall Street Journal Asia is the most widely read daily publication with a 16% share of elite business readers. The Financial Times, which posted strong growth since the last survey, came in second place with an 11% share.

In the weekly magazine category, Time was the most widely read magazine with a 22% share, followed by Newsweek at 19% and BusinessWeek at 18%.

In the competitive monthly magazine sector National Geographic topped the list with a 23% share, followed by Reader's Digest at 21%.

For the first time, Ipsos included online readership trends across business elites. Yahoo! news emerged as the frontrunner with a 17% share, followed by Google news at 12%, CNN.com at 7% and BBC news at 4%.

Interestingly, online news portals from Time.com, Newsweek.com, wsj.com and cnbc.com only managed a small share of elite business readers.

"These readers have a voracious appetite for information from a variety of sources," Jenny Armshaw-Heak, business development director Asia for Ipsos Media, said.

"What we are seeing is not the simple substitution of one medium for another but, with usage of all media up across the board, a desire for richer sources of knowledge and business information drawn from print, television and online."